Hercules Mulligan

Hercules Mulligan (1740-4 March 1825) was a tailor and a United States spy during the American Revolutionary War, having been recruited by Alexander Hamilton. Mulligan's espionage during the war helped in the final victory at the Siege of Yorktown, and after the war he led a prosperous tailoring business.

Biography
Hercules Mulligan was born in 1740 in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland, a province of Great Britain. His family immigrated to New York when he was just six, and he attended King's College (Columbia University) before becoming a tailor's apprentice. Mulligan's business catered to wealthy British Army officers, and he married a Royal Navy admiral's niece in 1773. Mulligan was introduced to Alexander Hamilton just after Hamilton had arrived in America, and the two of them lived together in New York City for a time. Mulligan influenced Hamilton's support of the American Revolution and, during the American Revolutionary War, Hamilton recruited Mulligan as a spy. In 1776, Mulligan, Hamilton, and other militiamen raided British artillery positions at Battery Park to steal cannons from them, and he was appointed as the source of reliable information from occupied New York to Washington after the city's fall. Mulligan saved Washington's life two times by warning him of British plots, and he also ensured that the American plan at the Siege of Yorktown would succeed. After the war, he helped in forming the American Manumission Society due to his beliefs in abolitionism, and he led a prosperous tailoring business. In 1820, he retired and died five years later.